vieillesvsvieillotWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“vieilles” and “vieillot” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,391
“vieilles” frequency rank
#42,678
“vieillot” frequency rank
47069
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vieilles vieillot
Definition Féminin pluriel de vieux. Qui a un air de vieillesse.

Where the eye mixes vieilles and vieillot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. vieilles and vieillot follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
vieilles
8 ch
vieillot

Look-alike desk: vieilles vs vieillot

A purely visual mix-up. vieilles (\vjɛj\) and vieillot (\vjɛ.jo\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47069, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vieilles is recorded at frequency rank #4,391, classified as anadj, pronounced \vjɛj\. vieillot is at rank #42,678, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vjɛ.jo\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 47069, this pair ranks #189,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vieilles vs vieillot

Shared letters: eilv. Private to "vieilles": s. Private to "vieillot": ot.

"vieilles" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC  ·  "vieillot" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vieilles ← iveilles · veiilles · vieilels · vieiles · vieilless · vieillse · vieliles · viielles
  • vieillot ← iveillot · veiillot · vieillott · vieillto · vieilolt · vieilot · vielilot · viiellot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vieilles" for "vieillot" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vjɛj\ versus \vjɛ.jo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vieilles" or "vieillot"?
"vieilles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,391 in our French list, against #42,678 for "vieillot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vieilles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vieillot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vieilles" and "vieillot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vieillis vs vieillot". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #189,890 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list